It has been said that we live in a time when change happens so fast that we begin to see the present only when it’s already disappearing. Nobody knows that better than Marissa Mayer, the new chief executive of Yahoo, who has to face competing with the likes of Google and Amazon. Mayer certainly has her hands full. But her challenge likely has less to do with algorithms and ad revenue than with people.

Regardless of the industry, an incoming CEO is the new sheriff in town and can expect to be tested. New CEOs are rarely brought in to maintain the status quo. Change is demanded. But change ruffles feathers. It threatens comfort zones. If mishandled, it disheartens the very people looking for leadership. Disheartened people can quickly become disengaged, and disengagement is perhaps the deadliest of organizational viruses.

For Marissa Mayer and every other new CEO out there, here are six ground rules that can help you transform good intentions into great performance.

1. Relinquish power. Relax. I’m not talking about giving up your parking space or your corner office. But I’m talking about doing something even harder, letting go of the notion that you’re the smartest person in the room. Sometimes you may be, but often not. Resist pulling rank on people. In the aristocracy of good ideas, rank and title mean zilch. It’s unrealistic to ask people to forget that you’re the boss, but do your best to create an environment where it’s safe to disagree with you. Some of the best leaders I know frequently say things like, “Terrific, you see it differently! Help me understand your perspective.”

2. Defer judgment. This doesn’t mean never reaching a conclusion. Of course you must. But you’ll serve yourself and others best if you hold off on your judgments until you have sufficient data to proceed with justifiable confidence. Honest dialogue (dia = through, logos = meaning) cannot pay rich dividends if it is held back by preconceived notions and untested theories. The better you and your team get at vetting issues openly and candidly, the quicker you can reach conclusions with confidence. But don’t rush it. Pay the price of earning—and extending—trust.

3. Tame the elephants. Most organizations have elephants in the room, relevant issues that nobody seems willing to talk about. A natural consequence of such undiscussables is that fresh viewpoints get deflected or even smothered. For Detroit automakers, the marketplace surge of Japanese cars was long an undiscussable. At Kodak, digital photography was an undiscussable. Identify the elephants in your environment. Uncover the underlying assumptions that people have about the elephants. Then make it safe to talk openly about them. (And remember that your own leadership style may come across as an undiscussable.)

4. Listen with empathy. A comic once said that authentic communication is 50% sincerity, and then you just fake the rest. That line may get a chuckle, but it is dangerous in practice. Genuine listening is much more than eye contact and an occasional “uh-huh.” Listen to learn and understand rather than to rebut and overpower. Exercise influence rather than authority. Stay willing to be influenced rather than assuming that the views of others should always be subservient to yours. The best teachers listen with empathy because they know you can’t teach effectively without knowing where the learners are. The best doctors listen with empathy because they know that prescribing without diagnosing can be deadly.

5. Inquire to discover. Command-and-control folks often play the gotcha game, in which they ask questions designed to convince or win, or even to entrap, attack, or overpower others. Inquiries rooted in these motives, no matter how congenial in tone, quickly resemble a prosecutor’s cross-examination. This is absolutely not the purpose of authentic inquiry. In the context of true dialogue, inquire to learn, to discover, to deepen your understanding. That’s not to say you will or necessarily should agree with everything you hear. It’s merely to say that inquiring to learn is a natural outgrowth of deferring judgment and listening with empathy.

6. Advocate with respect. A lamentable consequence of our confrontational culture is that we’re usually more adept at advocating than inquiring. Don't get me wrong; I’m not suggesting that good leadership requires gathering endless reams of “input” before a decision is reached. Neither am I suggesting that decisions must always be preceded by a dialogue session. What I am saying is that effective leaders advocate with a good balance of humility, confidence, and respect. Humility because they don’t know everything, confidence because their position should be based on a reasonable interpretation of available data, and respect because the other parties also have valuable contributions and may in fact have better ideas.

Don’t make the mistake of branding these behaviors as touchy-feely or warm and fuzzy. Some of the toughest-minded and most successful leaders I know practice them faithfully. They produce great results. Try them yourself. And if you’re the new sheriff in town, you’ll find you have lots of deputies.